Forest occupation in Belgium needs more people!

Since the first of Juli we have occu­pied a for­est in Wilrijk, south of Antwerp in Bel­gium. It looks like it won’t be a very long occu­pa­tion, because the own­er has already start­ed all the pro­ce­dures to kick us out and the police stops by at least once a day.

Since the first of Juli we have occu­pied a for­est in Wilrijk, south of Antwerp in Bel­gium. It looks like it won’t be a very long occu­pa­tion, because the own­er has already start­ed all the pro­ce­dures to kick us out and the police stops by at least once a day. We urgent­ly need more peo­ple (climbers and ground crew!) to help us occu­py this for­est and make it as hard as pos­si­ble for the police to evict us.


So if you can spare a few days to pro­tect the for­est with your pres­ence and help us build our walk­ways, plat­forms and kitchen, please stop by!

adress: fotografielaan 7
wilrijk
train to antwerp cen­tral
from roo­sevelt­plaats bus 500 to boom
get off close to the piz­za­hut (ask bus­driv­er)
walk to the piz­za­hut, go right, at the end of the road (cows) go right, first left, you’ll see the ban­ners
you can con­tact us at:  steungroep.groenoord@gmail.com
for more info: www.groenoord.be / face­book van ste­un­groep groeno­ord
0485507274

The area has been mapped as a for­est since 1771 and is an eco­log­i­cal­ly very valu­able oak for­est which is a habi­tat for lots of birds and endan­gered bat species. The for­est is a so called wrong­ly zoned for­est, it’s been zoned as an indus­tri­al area since 2005. Flan­ders (the dutch speak­ing part of Bel­gium) is the sec­ond poor­est region in Europe when it comes to forests, only 8 % of the land if for­est. About a third of those forests are wrong­ly zoned which means they are often threat­ened. Most of these forests are cut with­out any­one ever know­ing. So we are not just fight­ing for this spe­cif­ic for­est, we are fight­ing for a more just for­est pol­i­cy in Flan­ders.

The own­er wants to cut the for­est to build an office and stor­age space, but it is not clear if they have some­one to rent it yet. Their old part­ner end­ed the con­tract because the plans were delayed.

There’s heaps of emp­ty office build­ings in Flan­ders. With­in a minute’s walk from the for­est there’s 4 emp­ty build­ings that could be ren­o­vat­ed or bro­ken down to make space for a new build­ing. Yet they still want to cut the for­est.

Because they have nev­er done prop­er geo­log­i­cal stud­ies there’s big prob­lems with the water in the area. The water can’t go any­where so part of the for­est is often under water, which has killed a lot of the trees. Mea­sures need to be tak­en to ensure the sur­vival of the for­est.

When­ev­er cut­ting forests in Flan­ders, they talk about com­pen­sa­tion. Which is bull­shit. You can’t just cut a for­est here and plant a new one some­where else.

It is about time we realise that trees have an intrin­sic val­ue and stop think­ing only about mon­ey.

NO COMPROMISE IN DEFENSE OF MOTHER EARTH

Help us defend the trees!

groeNo­ord / Groen­front! (Earth First!)